Friday, September 11, 2015

The bullies in [ ] their party [ ] their legislative caucus [ ] their precinct tell them not to.

Even Bush has more or less acknowledged that he won’t go after Trump with Trump-like levels of vigor unless Trump attacks his family — he’s preferred to offer up factual rebuttals of Trump’s claims he is low-energy. (Imagine one boy calling another boy a nerd on the playground, and the bullied kid responds, “Actually, I’m not a nerd — and here are some reasons why … ”) In other words, one could be forgiven for developing the impression that no one is effectively pushing back against Trump's bullying.

“They feel like they’re going to be the next target,” Juvonen said of bystanders and victims in bullying situations. “They don’t want to further risk their status or make themselves more vulnerable, so they know to stay quiet. But then the bully has further promoted his status, because nobody is now publicly coming out to say, 'Wait a minute, this is not right what you’re doing' ... that’s why you need a coalition, you need a united force.” As of yet, that united force hasn’t quite emerged in the GOP primary. The bully is still shoving and screaming his way across the playground, and the teachers are nowhere in sight.